Thursday, September 18, 2008

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

MPC History

The original MPC60 was designed by Roger Linn, who was hired as a design consultant by Akai. He developed the functional design, including the panel layout and software/hardware specifications. He then created the software with a team of engineers. The hardware electronics were designed by English engineer David Cockerell and his team.[1] Cockerell was a founder member of the synthesizer firm EMS (co-creater of their famous VCS3 along with Peter Zinovieff,[2]), and had then worked for effects manufacturers Electro-Harmonix.

Shortly after the MPC60's release, the MPC60-II was designed. Released in 1991, the MPC60-II offered most of the same features as the MPC60, with an added headphone output and a plastic housing replacing the original metal one.[3] In 1994, Akai released the MPC3000, which boasted 16-bit, 44 kHz sampling, 32-voice polyphony, and SCSI data transfer.[4] Akai developed and released the MPC2000 without Linn in 1997.[1] It came with 2 MB of RAM, an optional effects board, and a 100,000 note 64-track sequencer.[5] The MPC2000 was replaced by the MPC2000XL in 2000. The MPC2000XL added an improved 300,000 note sequencer, a 64-track mixer and time-stretch and resample features. Four limited edition models of the MPC2000XL were released.[5]

In 2002 Akai unveiled the MPC4000, the most powerful MPC to date. The MPC4000 features 8 assignable outputs, a hard drive and CD-ROM drive. The MPC4000's memory can be expanded to up to 512 MB of RAM, the largest amount on an MPC to date.[6] Only two years after the release of the MPC4000, Akai released the MPC1000, which was the smallest in the MPC product line at the time of its release. It is also the first MPC to utilize CompactFlash memory.[7]. Both the MPC2500 and the MPC500 were added to the Akai MPC series in 2006. The MPC2500 is a mid-range MPC with 8 assignable outputs and CompactFlash storage.[8] Designed for portability, the MPC500 features 1 MIDI In/Out and CompactFlash storage, and can be powered by 6 AA batteries.[9]

JJ Operating System

In the summer of 2006, an anonymous programmer believed to be an ex-Akai employee released a 3rd party OS for the MPC 1000 and later for the MPC 2500. This programmer was nicknamed "JJ" or "Japanese Jenius" by an enthusiastic fan/beta tester.

This new software boasts superior features to those of the original OS and also fixes a number of bugs in the Akai software.[21]. Collective additions include "midi grid edit" (piano roll), extensive qlink support, audio tracks, aftertouch, portamento, and innumerable performance and system tweaks. The demo version lacks a save capability, which is unlocked with the purchase of a password for $30.

As a programmer, JJ is characterized by his frequent updates and attentiveness to customer feedback. Despite a significant language barrier (Japanese-English) JJ OS users maintain a steady stream of dialog with the programmer. This steady flow of dialog between the user and the programmer is further maintained through the ability to report a bug in the system directly to JJ through the "Report a Bug" link on the JJ OS website.

In late December, 2007, JJ released a beta version of OS 2, which has since gone gold. This version gives the 1000 and 2500 features[22] found on the more expensive MPC 4000, such as ADSR for pitch, amp and filter, keymaps etc. On March 11th, 2008, The 1.0 version of OS2 was released, adding more sound editing possibilities, including: fade in and out, and combine of two sounds. It also added audio track improvements, which mainly focused around the ability to apply pads to markers with in an audio track. These are just an example of improvements made in the 1.0 version. [23]

There are three different versions of the JJ OS available for download.

JJ OS 3.08 (free)

This version is the most similar to the Akai OS, and does not include many new features, however it has fixed a series of bugs.

JJ OS1

A version of "OS1" which is the most stable version of the all of the JJ OS's. Has the ability to trigger with just a touch of the note repeat, the user must purchase a password for $30.00 US dollars. OS1 is currently in version 4.99B. There is a version made for the MPC 2500 which is in version 5.51.

JJ OS2

The last version of the JJ OS is OS2, which was released in beta form in late December 2007. Many of these features that have been added by OS2 have been compared to features included in the high-end MPC 4000. Like OS1, it can be downloaded and tried free of charge, but users are unable to save. This can be unlocked by purchasing a password for OS2, however, users are unable to install OS2 unless they already have installed an unlocked version of OS1 first. On March 11th 2008 version 1.0 was released[23], and as of 04.08.2008, the JJOS2 is available for both the MPC1000(v1.06) and the MPC2500(v1.04), with both costing $49.

This is the city symbol for Nagoya Japan, definitely one of the favorite places I've been, the symbols not bad either, simple and refined, but kinda techy to... Almost looks like the old AphexTwin joint.Dope place to visit...

"Buried under the French-Swiss border, the Large Hadron Collider has gotten its share of ink--and for good reason. Hearing about the sheer magnitude and price of what's been called the biggest and most expensive scientific experiment in human history is enough to instill fascination and excitement in even the most non-particle-physicists among us. Once it's running at full capacity, the project's researchers say, the $5.3 billion LHC, the biggest particle accelerator ever built, will be able to answer questions physicists never thought they'd get answers to, like why the universe formed the way it did and why matter has mass. Critics of the project say it could have the opposite effect, leading not to knowledge but instead humanity's demise.

Technicians plan to flip the switch on the collider this week, sending bunches of protons around the concrete tube dispersed with supercooled electromagnets, to create the very first collisions. Last month I visited CERN, the international nuclear research lab near Geneva that houses the LHC. The project's vital statistics jump out: an underground ring 16 miles in circumference will propel bunches of protons (about 100 billion at a time) around at almost the speed of light, more than 11,000 times per second. But it's an experiment unlikely to deliver its promised answers anywhere near as quickly as the protons are moving inside it.

From the beginning, a quick turnaround of findings was never the goal. It's fundamental, rather than practical, knowledge that researchers are after, as well as a suspected new particle called the Higgs boson (dubbed "The God Particle" for its potential to answer the most basic questions about existence, such as how anything came into existence) that could have unfathomable uses far into the future. Researchers liken the pursuit of the Higgs to the 1897 discovery of the electron, an atom's charged outermost particle. Its detection aided the harnessing of mass electricity, which has fueled core cultural components of the 21st century: the efficient lights we turn on, the TVs we watch and the phones we talk on. Another advance like that, CERN hopes, could be in store.

The collider will operate around the clock for nine months of the year: about 600 million collisions per second. Two floors of computer servers installed to measure LHC data will keep records of only a fraction of the collisions; the computers will discard the rest. There's also the style of explosion. Very few collisions are the same, so finding the most powerful ones that might show the existence of the Higgs particle or other unexpected effects will take time. By the estimate of Lyn Evans, the LHC's project head, big findings won't come for "a pretty long time." A junior researcher I spoke with was more descriptive. "It will definitely take months at a minimum--years, if nature is not kind to us," he said.

A bigger problem is likely to be collaboration. The number of scientists working collectively on each of the ring's four experiments--about 10,000--has made the project the biggest international collaborative research endeavor in history. It's certainly helpful to have so many qualified, knowledgeable voices, but the size of the roster also brings a downside. Ten thousand geographically dispersed scientists poring over loads of data means more, and longer, squabbling over whether a Higgs really is a Higgs. "We're very lucky to have so many voices on this project, but yes, there could be some extended debating," said James Gillies, head spokesperson for CERN. Even after scientists agree on what they see, it could take years of analysis to agree on what a finding means, and how someone could find a practical use for it.

Until the collider starts, there's plenty of debate to fill that gap. Walter Wagner, a researcher in Hawaii, started a group this year called Citizens Against the Large Hadron Collider, devoted to halting the machine's operation until more testing ensures its safety. "There is a real possibility of creating destructive theoretical anomalies such as miniature black holes, strangelets and deSitter space transitions," Wagner says in a statement on the group's Web site. "These events have the potential to fundamentally alter matter and destroy our planet."

CERN's top researchers see it differently. Says Evans, "Any physical collision that humans are capable of creating on earth has already been happening much more powerfully and frequently in the natural universe." Still, the prospect of creating loads of tiny but quickly growing alternate universes would certainly add a new allure to an experiment that's already pretty enthralling. "